X-ray pulse shaping in experiments with planar wire arrays at the 1.6 MA Zebra generator

The shaping of the x-ray radiation pulse is very important in both radiation physics research and Inertial Confinement Fusion studies. The novel planar wire array (PWA) was found to be the effective radiator tested at the university-scale 1.6 MA, 100 ns Zebra generator. The single PWA consists of a single row of wires that are parallel to each other, while the double planar wire array (DPWA) and triple planar wire array (TPWA) include two or three parallel plane wire rows, respectively. All multi-planar geometries resulted in a cascade-type array implosion with a complicated multi-step precursor formation before plasma stagnation. The PWAs (without additional core foam target) feature a dynamic precursor evolution that is a powerful tool for x-ray pulse shaping. The shape and timing of the x-ray pulse from different PWAs were theoretically predicted and experimentally analyzed for a variety of planar wire arrays.